Ellen DeGeneres, Cover Girl, and Animals

I've admired comedienne Ellen DeGeneres for her outlook on animals and was distressed to see her appearing in "Cover Girl" ads. I wrote to PETA -- which named her Woman of the Year for Animals -- to ask if Ms DeGeneres was aware that Cover Girl's parent company Proctor & Gamble is long known as one of the worst corporate offenders in practicing cruelty to animals through outdated tests. A good many of us have boycotted P & G and all its products for a long time because we know they continue to blind and kill thousands of animals, usually rabbits, every year even though alternate tests for so-called "hypoallergenic" products are available.

PETA emailed a reply within the same day! Here it is:

"

Thank you for writing to us about Ellen DeGeneres appearing in Cover Girl ads.

Before signing with Cover Girl, Ellen was diligent in making sure that Cover Girl no longer tests on animals. She made it crystal clear that the company’s "no testing" policy was essential in order for her to agree to be its spokesperson. We love her for that! It is because of principled people like Ellen that we will see an end to animal testing for cosmetics.

Cover Girl's parent company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), announced in 1999 that it had revised its animal-testing policy. P&G stated that it will end the use of animal tests for all its current nonfood, nondrug products. This indicates that P&G realizes the importance of the animal-testing issue.

However, P&G has not permanently halted all nonrequired animal experiments. According to P&G, it will not perform experiments on many existing products, but it has not agreed to stop testing new ingredients and products on animals. This is why P&G products are not listed as cruelty-free by PETA. In addition, P&G subsidiary Iams continues to perform unnecessary tests on animals (for information, please visit http://www.IamsCruelty.com).

Please contact P&G's chair, and encourage him to make a permanent commitment to never again test any product or ingredient on animals.

Alan G. Lafley
Chair, President, and CEO
Procter & Gamble
1 Procter & Gamble Plz.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513-983-1100
513-983-9369 (fax)
http://www.pg.com "